has a wealthy and politically powerful father.
Bill married another bomber, so we have this old, but heart-warming scene of the two bombers with their devil-spawn.
The University of Illinois in Chicago gave Obama's mad bomber pal a cushy teaching job and tenure?
That is not exactly a shocker. For one thing, the most violent radicals come from rich families. After a life on the run, they enjoy the finer things in life. They are all steak-radicals. They want to overthrow society while they continue to eat steak and enjoy a plush vacation home in addition to their tony urban digs.
Secondly, the elite in America are tolerant of the radical Left, often generous in supporting them. They are not so fond of traditional conservatives.
I have seen many examples of a Bill Ayers in the histories of various denominations. Find someone determined to overthrow the denomination's confession and you will find a well-connected father in the background, time after time.
The father is a pledge of fidelity that sonny boy is OK. In denominations, a father in the church business is handy for pulling strings and hiding scandals, too. A few clergy uncles and a rich layman in the background help too.
One famous example is Fuerbringer (go-fer in English, as Tim Buelow once explained to me). The father was a fine pastor, excellent professor, president of Concordia, St. Louis. His two books are excellent little histories of the LCMS. Moreover, the Fuerbringers were related to Walther. Ludwig Fuerbringer was so serious a student that he turned down speaking engagements so he could study more. He mentioned Luther's sermons as the basis for his pastoral counseling. (Imagine that today. The Sausage Factory has students reading Reformed garbage, always cautioning while promoting.)
Eventually, Ludwig's son, nicknamed Fibby, became president of the same institution. What could be better? However, Fibby was the well connected bomb thrower, just the opposite of his father. Fibby installed all the apostates in the school, not without help from other apostates. Soon the whole faculty was full of LCA-types, with only a few exceptions.
Rehwinkel tried to get the old faculty to say something. They muted themselves. Rehwinkel was sent around the world to keep him from "causing trouble." That reminds me of District Pope Robert Mueller saying to me, "You cause trouble everywhere you go." He also said, "You are one of our soundest pastors." Proof that the Word is efficacious.
Fibby did his work well. The LCMS exploded when people found out how expertly he administered the school. There were many other players in the Missouri drama, but Fibby's role was crucial.
Another parallel is David Valleskey's father starting him on the road to perdition with the promotion of Reformed doctrine in the name of evangelism. (Valleskey senior's parish is no more.) When Valleskey joined the Sausage Factory, one WELS observer said, "He will turn WELS upside-down." He did. We also have Wayne Mueller, WELS President-in-Waiting, having his son at Church and Change, the sect's remarkable agency for promoting every doctrine except Luther's. No one is going to dislodge Adam Mueller while daddy works at the Love Shack.
One pastor came back from the WELS convention and told me how Richard Stadler (feminist WELS pastor, pal of Herman Otten's sister Marie Meyer) was conferring with Wayne Mueller and Paul Kelm.
One reader wrote me about Paul Kelm working for Valleskey at Apostles.
When WELS wanted someone to put the stamp of approval on Manufacturing Disciples, the Reformed (NIV) reading of the Great Commission, they turned to the son of a faithful teacher. Mudslide's son promptly moonwalked into the Reformed camp, endorsing a fatuous position.
I have thought of writing a series of biographies: Conservative Fathers, Apostate Sons. However, it would be run to 20 volumes.
